Michael Kassan, the unofficial king of Cannes, returns to Cannes with his new company, 3c Ventures. The founder and CEO of the strategic counseling firm has been in Cannes Lions for 25 years, which is almost a third of the existence of 72 years of the conference.
3CV kicked off Cannes with his coincidental opening dinner organized by 3c Ventures, Iheartmedia, Disney at the Louroc restaurant in Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes Monday night. It was followed by convene after Dark, a later party, organized by Iheartmedia, 3c Ventures, Condé Nast, which took place in a newly built place on the hotel’s property, giving two major events to start the festival.
The company has also launched 3CV Plage, a new space on the beach where sellers, media executives and advertisers discuss some of the most important problems in the industry throughout the week.
Kassan talked to The Post of Stagwell’s Sport Beach on Tuesday about how the conference has evolved, what is on the horizon for media and advertising industries, and how to survive in the long days and hot and raucous nights full of Cannes Lions drinks.
Q: I was at the 3CV Executive Dinner and your party last night. Please say -More information about your new company, 3CV and what did you plan for this week in Cannes?
Michael Kassan: We had fun last night and 3C during their opening visit here to the Cannes Lions, they gave me the departure, I think, in the way we like with all our friends and partners and a good cross section of this industry. And the way I always describe Cannes Lions is the intersection of marketing, media, advertising, entertainment, sports and technology. I think, you know, the Latin I learned when I was in the Faculty of Law, many, many, many years, was “Lunural recipes”, which in Latin says he speaks on his own. So all you have to do is look around the Croisette and I think he speaks on his own.
Q: How did you think you went last night? Will you do the same next year? Have you had the opportunity to think?
MK: I think we changed it a bit. I have been seeing Cannes Lions for about a quarter of a century. My first visit here was 25 years ago, so I suppose this is not a quarter of a century. I was good in math. That is, a quarter of a century. He has changed dramatically and I think it always needs to be it. The joint joke on the cheek is, in Cannes, on Monday is the new Tuesday.
Q: How have Cannes Lions evolved over the years?
MK: It’s interesting. When I introduced myself, a kind of accidentally, my wife and I were on vacation, we had always been in this part of the world in the third week of June, coincidentally, because, you know, 35 years old. And one day I was sitting in the pool of our hotel and it was a time like Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz”. When, if you remember, of course, when he woke up and said, and you are there, and you are there, and you are looking at all the hands of the farm, which turned out to be the characters. And I was sitting in the pool and saw a lot of people on the creative side of the industry. And at that time, he directed what was then the largest media agency in the world. And I just say that to emphasize the surprise when I said, “Why are you here?”
And I went to my wife and said, “Why don’t we go to Cannes tomorrow and check that?” And I arrived here and that was and continues to be a celebration of creativity. I think if I can say -with a little immodesty. I think what I did was that I saw the opportunity to build a conference around the Festival of Creativity.
What I learned … is that there are events that are conferences or [there are] Festivals and are different. And I understand the nuance now. And if you look around the Croisette, as I said before, it is clearly a conference. And this conference still surrounds a celebration of creativity. I think Cannes Lions today is the perfect intersection of everything that joins at the same time. This is probably the most efficient week of the year because everyone is here you want to see. And there is always the answer he gets from people when they say, “I could see you in New York, I could see you in, I can see you Cleveland” but no. And here is a forcing function.
Q: What types of problems do you talk about in Plage CV this week? What do sellers really focus this year?
MK: There are probably four main problems this year. Ai is overwhelmingly the number one theme of everyone’s mind. Up and down the Croisette and is from all aspects of how he will play [out in your business] And what will happen? What does this do to work? What does this do to do what I do? It is the technology of yes, because it will affect everything we do in all aspects of our life number one, so the main topic would be clearly.
I think the second issue is the appearance of what many call the media networks of what I have begun to call trade media networks because they are no longer the province of only retailers. When you have companies like Lyft and Uber and Chase Bank and Best Buy. Best Buy is a retailer, so you could call it a retail media network, but it is based on trade.
The third is clearly the appearance of the influencer and the creative economy. [The fourth topic]I think it is the M&A market and what will happen while we expect the omnicom melting to close, God willing, and Ihink will be more to come. I suspect the Holding company landscape will not look like Cannes 2026.
Q: How will it affect the fusion of skydiving to the landscape of the media, assuming that it happens?
MK: Well, he has it. Paramount has already made some decisions about who will be his media members. This was announced about two weeks ago, so we are already seeing some impact, and it is even before the closure of this agreement, which we hope to do. And I think once this agreement is closed, and I think it will be and I think it would have, I think it will unlock massive changes in the streaming market.
I just think the way of having warnerbros. Discovery, having slaughtered the cable and comcast assets, after turning their cable assets … Read to you for different types of transactions and I think once the Skydance Paramount Agreement is closed, you will see much more activity in this regard because like the media networks. I have always subscribed. In a philosophy that if you find circumstances where you can use the following three words in a sentence in the right way, someone will make money. And these three words are consolidation, fragmentation and efficiency. If you can find a fragmented circumstance that can be made more efficient through consolidation, someone will do well. If you look at the landscape today with the media media or the detail media networks, there are too many. I think there will be consolidation. I look at the streaming situation exactly the same. Therefore, I think you will see that some of the streamers join. And I think the paramount agreement is a unlocking for that.
Q: As a Cannes veteran, what are your advice for the people who happen this week? How can you be efficient while surviving the annoyance of going to all these events at night and getting up in the morning for meetings and panels?
MK: It’s really difficult, but what I always said to my teams when we got to the ground at the beginning of Cannes, part of my game’s speech on the team has always been that the dew cup in hand is just a support. It is not to drink. It is there to maintain and be social. This is the best lesson I can give you, number one. Number two, Light Light, is very hot and it does everything. It smells the roses, make sure -you have to take everything. Spend time looking at the work because in its nucleus, the International Creativity Festival of Cannes Lions is around work.
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